In many situations, tracking of physical objects and positive identification of an owner are useful. For example, in the context of air travel, luggage is many times separated from its owner intentionally or unintentionally creating the need to locate it. Locating lost luggage is hampered by the differing and labyrinthine systems used by airports generally to transport luggage and the now standard size and shape of luggage required by major air carriers. Once located, identifying lost luggage among a myriad of “look-a-like” bags can also create the problem of misidentification, even if the general location of luggage has been identified.
In the context of a warehouse, similar problems arise. For example, internet commerce has provided fulfillment companies that are tasked with the responsibility of moving countless shipping packages in standardized shipping boxes through complex routing systems to arrive at local carriers for delivery. Despite barcoding, many packages are misrouted and require physical tracking to be located which creates system inefficiencies, increased shipping costs and shipping delays.
There is also a need to positively identify physical objects in a variety of physical locations. For example, in an airport, there are many barriers to the use of known tracking devices. In general, GPS tracking of physical objects is difficult to accomplish inside concrete and steel buildings, thereby rendering it mostly ineffective in an airport terminal. In much the same way, large scale use of RFID tracking alone is ineffective because of radio interference of steel structures such as baggage claim carousels and steel security barriers.
In much the same way, GPS tracking and RFID tracking systems are rendered ineffective in a warehouse due to steel racks, conveyor tracks and moving robotic forklift systems.
There is a need to positively associate the owner of physical objects once they have been located to prevent mistaken identification and to verify the ownership claims made. The prior art has failed to provide a system whereby the ownership of baggage is certified beyond a physical paper tag with a number and bar code. Further, paper tags are often lost or disfigured, rendering them useless. Further, paper identification tags do little to thwart theft and cannot provide a positive identification of luggage if the matching identification cards are lost.
In the same way, in a warehouse, positive identification of shipping packages cannot be made in the prior art without the use of paper labels and bar codes. Even so, the paper labels require identification by a scanner and are subject to being damaged or disfigured rendering them useless.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the limitations of prior art systems to locate physical objects inside concrete and steel buildings with large numbers of steel barriers.
A need also exists for a system that can reliably locate physical items and positively associate them with their owners without the use of fragile and ineffective paper tags.
In the prior art, many modern systems exist for tracking objects by use of radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags and global positioning systems. However, none of them satisfactorily address the needs in the industry.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,664,510 to Nathan, et al. discloses a system and method of tracking objects by combining data obtained from multiple sensor types. However, Nathan does not employ a combination of tagging systems with image recognition, augmented reality, or with verified visual authentication of ownership.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,244 to August, et al. discloses tracking baggage using radio frequency (RF) tags. However, a combination of global positioning, RFID or beacon signals with image recognition, and augmented reality mapping is not disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,305,283 to Lauka, et al. discloses associating RF identifier (RFID) tags with barcodes using images. However, Lauka does not disclose a combination of global positioning data, beacon signals and/or RFID tags with image recognition and a display of user information associated with a tagged object.
U.S. Publication No. 2006/0256959 to Hymes discloses spatial addressing to identify the location of objects in a display. However, a combination of beacon signals with image recognition and global positioning is not disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,237,564 to Chang discloses visualizing locations of RFID tagged items. However, Chang does not disclose a combination of global positioning and beacon signals with image recognition nor does it disclose augmented reality in combination with user identification.